Wednesday, 9 November 2011

One of my all time favourite autobio comix practitioners is Eddie Campbell, he of From Hell and Bacchus fame. Most of his autobio stuff has been collected in Alec: The years have pantswhich includes The King Canute Crowd and How to be an artist. He is also a prolific blogger and always has interesting things to say on comics, music, art and life in general.

Over the last few weeks he has been analysing romance comics, a genre I knew practically nothing about. There is some amazing work and he has inspired me to check out some books starting with Setting the Standard: comics by Alex Toth. I lifted the above panel from Eddie's blog, it's from a Toth strip from 1953 and is a most beautiful thing.

Wednesday, 17 August 2011

So, it's done. My MA is finished and the degree show has been hung. Feels like it has been a long time coming, although taking a year out in the middle has a heck of a lot to do with that. Above is a taster image from the show in mid-install, lots more to see at the finished show.

The private view is Friday 19th August but the show opens properly on Saturday 20th August and runs until Sunday 28th, open 10am to 5pm every day. It is in Edinburgh College of Art's Evolution House which is on the corner of West Port and Lady Lawson Street, close to here.

Friday, 5 August 2011

So, the deadline for my MA is almost exactly one week away. I have been furiously screenprinting and have had the luxury of having the screen printing room to myself (with the occasional visit from fellow MA-er Karolina). I am quite pleased with my BIG prints of characters in my comic, who are also members of my family. The above pic is the screen for the black layer on the the prints of my sister Lorraine, who sadly died in 1973 aged 4. The light in the wash out booth casts a warm yet ghostly glow.

Just the limited edition comic book covers to finish screenprinting now, and the last couple of strips to finish, and the essay to finish, and the mural to design, and the show to hang - No Problem!

Thursday, 30 June 2011

We took down The Spacen last Thursday, hard to gauge the success of the exhibition as it was mainly (for my part at least) in a shopping centre. I was pretty happy with the way my work turned out though and thought it worked well in the large comic panel-like windows of the shop I was in. Dealing with the council and business politics of putting art in shop windows is a tricky business. Most people would like to see something in an empty shop space but there are many difficulties to work out with rates etc and the threat that the space may be pulled before the exhibition is due to finish. This was my second experience of showing in an empty shop and I would have to think hard if the chance came up again.

Ok, it's been a while. But I am now back at ECA to finish off my MA Illustration. I now have to work very hard to produce some strips and other work by 12th August at 4pm, eek!

I have not been sitting around doing nothing though. Blacksand Contemporary Arts have had two exhibitions. The first was COAST in Kirkcaldy Museum & Art Gallery in November last year which has been successfully toured to the COAST festival in Banff in May 2011 - we took COAST to COAST!

Currently showing in the Rothes Halls, Glenrothes is THE SPACE BETWEEN - a joint exhibition with five artists from Cupar. It is on until the 23rd June so still a couple of weeks left to see it.

About Me

I am a researcher, artist and cartoonist. I am currently working on a PhD in autobiographical comics at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design at Dundee University.
See more of my work at www.damonherd.com